India: Absence of compassion & justice must not be the norm

The Asian
Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from
Punjab concerning the protest by fasting held by Mr.
Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa, who ended his fast after 43 days, on
29 December 2013. Khalsa had commenced his protest at the
Amb Singh Gurdwara on 14 November to secure the release of
all Sikh prisoners that have completed the terms of their
sentences. He ended his hunger fast upon the release, on
parole, of three prisoners, convicted for the Beant Singh
assassination case.

Both the Sikh separatist movement and
its crushing by the government has resulted in violence and
human rights abuses since the 1980s. Khalsa’s stand is
indicative of a large section of the Sikh community that
wants persons serving prolonged sentences to be released.
The convictions in many of these cases should be viewed in
light of the violence and injustice the state has witnessed.
It is widely understood that in many cases evidence was
planted and prefabricated against the accused. Furthermore,
many state officers and politicians who committed gross and
disproportionate human rights abuses against the Sikhs in
the 1980’s have been rewarded for their crimes and have
never been brought to justice.

Khalsa began his fast
demanding the release of six prisoners from his community,
detained in Chandigarh, Punjab, Karnataka, and Uttar
Pradesh. Of the six, three prisoners are convicted for the
assassination of former Chief Minister of Punjab, Mr. Beant
Singh. The other three were convicted after being charged
under a draconian legislation, once in force in Punjab, the
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act,
1987.

The Punjab insurgency, and its suppression, left a
heavy trail of blood and human rights abuses, committed by
both state and non-state actors. Neither the civil society
groups nor the government has an exact number of civilians
disappeared, tortured, and murdered during the years of
insurgency in Punjab. Unverified reports suggest that the
number of disappearances and extrajudicial executions,
committed by militant groups as well as state agencies,
amount to more than 10,000, spanning a 12 year period
starting from early 1980s.

The violence was uncontrollable
in Punjab, since militants abducted and executed persons
they chose as targets, and planned and executed bomb attacks
upon politicians and state functionaries. The state
responded with disproportionate violence, with bloody and
violent crackdowns, and wanton violation of law, with
civilians often caught in between. Operation Blue Star,
viewed by many as an affront to Sikh religion, further added
fuel to violence.

State operations to counter militancy in
Punjab were undertaken in an atmosphere of complete
impunity. Abduction, torture, extrajudicial executions,
rape, and fabrication of charges were the norm. State
agencies arrested innocent civilians on fabricated charges
and had false evidences against them planted. The judiciary
violated norms during trials. Many trials were held in
secrecy. The state police liberally violated the law with
impunity; midnight search of residences were carried out
that ended in widespread rape, torture, and terror.

The
extent of impunity was such that following Operation Blue
Star, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, and the 1984
Anti-Sikh Riots, police were empowered to detain suspects
for any reason, ostensibly as suspected militants. Police
were accused of killing unarmed suspects in staged shootouts
and burning thousands of dead bodies to cover up the
murders. The National Human Rights Commission has compiled a
list of persons cremated in Amritsar, Majitha, and Tarn
Taran between June 1984 to December 1994. The Commission
documented cases of 2,097 dead bodies that the Punjab Police
“disposed off” by burning without following any forensic
procedures. Families were either afraid to claim their
relatives' bodies fearing further action against the rest of
the family members by the state, or because they did not
know when and where their relatives were murdered by the
state agencies.

The trial of many accused now serving
sentences took place in this backdrop of state-sponsored
violence against armed militancy in Punjab. While it is a
practice in India that persons serving long periods of
sentences are released either on parole or their sentences
commuted by the state after a reasonable period of
imprisonment, most of those convicted on charges of
militancy stemming out of the Punjab insurgency have been
denied such leniency. On the other hand, state officers who
have committed gross and disproportionate human rights
abuses have never investigated or tried for the equally
gruesome crimes they committed.

Politicians, including the
incumbent Prime Minister, have expressed regret about the
manner in which militancy in Punjab was handled and the
extent of human suffering left in its wake. Yet, the remorse
is so far limited to expression of personal sentiments and
opinions and has not taken the shape of any state-sponsored
initiative to find a meaningful closure for the open wounds
that exist today within the Sikh community.

It is
imperative – especially since the government has
repeatedly asserted that the conflict in Punjab is over –
that a process is instituted that will allow revisiting
cases where allegations questioning the veracity and
genuineness of the evidence relied upon to convict persons
exist. It is equally important that crimes committed by
state agencies be investigated, particularly those committed
by officers of the Punjab Police.

This is bare minimum
expected from a democratic government, one that has a
constitutional mandate to account for the lives lost and
reported missing after a 10-year-long insurgency and its
suppression. It is equally important for the state to
account for its actions so that state agencies engaged in
counter insurgency activities in India in the future will
not emulate the evil lessons that the state's suppression of
secessionist activities in Punjab
scripted.

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